The US National Academy of Engineering has announced a list of the 14 Engineering’s Grand Challenges. The committee that chose these topics after a one year long decision process include Larry Page, co-founder of google, as well as Craig Venter who was instrumental in mapping the human genome.

According to them, the 14 engineering challenges are:

Make solar energy affordable.

Provide energy from fusion.

Develop carbon sequestration methods.

Manage the nitrogen cycle.

Provide access to clean water.

Restore and improve urban infrastructure.

Advance health informatics.

Engineer better medicines.

Reverse-engineer the brain.

Prevent nuclear terror.

Secure cyberspace.

Enhance virtual reality.

Advance personalized learning.

Engineer the tools for scientific discovery.

Currently, providing access to clean water is voted to be the third most important item on this list.
Let’s get to it!

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I don’t get the first point of the list. Solar energy doesn’t cost a cent! It keeps the earth’s temperature on average +15 degree Celsius, it makes plants growing, burns your skin, melts glaciers – and we don’t have to pay anything.
Even targeted transformation of solar radiation to heat energy is pretty affordable. Only, when it comes to transformation to electric energy it is definitely worthwhile to improve economic efficiency.